Extinction vs accuracy

[rudy benavides]

--------------------------------------------------------------------
 
>- As localized population extinctions accumulate, a species may become
>EXTIRPATED from a defined geographic region. For example, Mitchell's satyr
>was known historically from a single population in Ohio, The extinction of
>that that butterfly from Streetsboro Fen resulted in the extirpation of
>Mitchell's satyr from Ohio. Karner blues were known from several
>populations in Ohio, all of which were extinct by the late 1980's resulting
>in the extirpation of Karner blues from Ohio (note that it has been
>re-introduced to Ohio, which doesn't negate the fact of past
>population-level extinction nor of past regional extirpation).
--------------------------------------------------------------------
John:  My Webster's New World Dictionary states that the synonym for
extirpate is exterminate.  Under exterminate, it states...SYN.- exterminate
implies the complete, wholesale destruction of living beings or things whose
existence is considered undesirable; extirpate and eradicate both suggest
the extinction or abolition of something, extirpate implying a deliberate
and violent destruction at the very source so that the thing cannot be
regenerated, and eradicate connoting less violence and often, the working of
natural processesor a methodical plan.
 
So I have to maintain that unless someone went to Streetboro Fen to
deliberately snuff out the Mitchell's satyr, it was not an extirpation.
That habitat destruction resulted in its vanishing from the site-- I would
agree on that.
 
Rudy Benavides
Maryland
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
 
 
 
 ------------------------------------------------------------
 
   For subscription and related information about LEPS-L visit:
 
   http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/lepsl